Giu,
You bring up another thing to be discussed, which I think should be touched on here. I have heard that many, many, many times.
That is why, in my opinion, you cruise -
for the kids too. We have no aspirations of circling the globe. But cruising boats with kids find one another and hang out together. That ended up being the case for us. Some of our best friends in the world were on a stink-pot behind us. They have 2 girls, both the same ages as Glen and Chase, and would do anything for us and we would do anything for them. 1300 miles away, they are still our closest friends.
Maybe what you see are the parents that are going to sail around the world, come hell or high water? Maybe to them it is the trip that is important, not the inbetween? To those children, they would have the same look no matter if by boat or RV or minivan on its way to the soccer game.
I will tell you that Melanie Neale LOVED it and when I spoke to her last week she said that she wants her children to do it. I have heard that from many other people that cruised and have grown up now. That is what I strive for.
I am not some anti-socialite, Giu. You know me. In fact, my wife calls me the mayor because everytime I get into a new harbor, I get all the cruisers to gether for drinks or a cookout! I enjoy people and some aspects of society.
However, I do not buy the goverments and societies views on how we should raise our children or what they think is normal. Shopping malls, play stations, and television is not normal. It is something that could be good in moderation, but we have molested and corrupted our perceptions into believing it is normal.
The kids I see here, especailly in the cities, are not happy. Mom and dad work just to make ends meet. Dad gets home late if at all. Weekends are a rush to finish the chores. THe lawn is mowed by immigrants. THe house is cleaned by immigrants. Restaurants cook more meals than the
stove at home. Salad comes from a bag, home cooked meals from a can. And the education is a racial, political abomination of government standards for medicoricy.
There was a thread a while back that said the days of Leave it to Beaver are gone and forgotten. They are not for me. My kids are close (but fight, that is normal). Me and the kids roll around in the floor and wrestle. We read books together. We go sailing together. We watch sunsets together. I plan on making the most of those years when they are close to mom and dad. The day will come, I am afraid, that they will want to distance themselves from us and find members of the opposite sex on their road to adulthood. If they want to cruise then, we will cruise. If not, we will not and will re-integrate into "society".
Until then, I hope to take them back out to see the world together. Do you realize how very, very lucky we are to get the chance to do this? Do you realize how very, very rare it is? We will seek out other cruising boats with kids and we will travel with my parents who are going cruising with us. In that way, I guess we are different than the boats you mentioned above. However, I want my children to see the world and experience different cultures and different places. I want them to enjoy it and look back on it as the best years of their lives. The only thing less acceptable than the "kids that don't look normal" is not to try at all.
In all things in life, whether the slums, the cities, the country or the sailboat, it is the parents that make the difference. Children will seek influences at these ages and what they experience and learn here will mold them into the men or women that they will become. I want that influence to be mine, and not a shopping mall or a television. I want it to be nature and the beautiful things the world holds outside of miles of concrete where no life can exist.
You have to understand my Friend, what I see, repeatedly, are the parents that dump their kids off at T-Ball, or soccer games, or the mall, or the
movies. They don't do it because it makes their kids normal, they do it because they don't care: free baby sitting. Is it because they do not love their children? Is it because they are worn out from the week before and need a break? Is it because the perceive it as normal? Who cares? The child does not. The end result is the same - we become a race (not just Americans) that have forgotten the importance of family. Such has our society become. And we wonder why children have the problems they do when they grow up.
Where I go and how I plan to do it is not "normal". But is that truly a bad thing? My children, my family, are my life. I have a true passion for cruising, and nature, and the ocean. I will share that passion with them. And should they become complacent or tired of it, then we will follow whatever trail makes them the most happy. If it is by boat, it is by boat. If it is by RV, it is by RV. If it is a house in the suburbs, it is a house in the suburbs.
But to the sea we will go. I truly hope to do it right.